Ramona's Trainer: Pain and inflammatory foods

Pain and inflammation is an extremely popular topic of conversation as of late. The reason is so many people, including myself, are experiencing chronic pain, and many times it is due to inflammation. What — and how much — we consume plays a role in the symptoms we experience.

Let’s start with what inflammation is:

Signs of acute, or early onset inflammation are pain, heat, redness, swelling, and loss of function. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process.

An issue arises when it becomes chronic. Long-term inflammation, known as chronic inflammation, leads to a cumulative shift in the type of cells at the site of inflammation and is characterized by simultaneous destruction and healing of the tissue from the inflammatory process, according to wikipedia.

Inflammation can occur due to an injury, disease, or overuse. Chronic inflammation can lead to immobility, cancer and in fact will and is a leading cause of death in developed countries.

What many people are starting to understand is this process can be exacerbated, and more importantly reversed by our diets.

The following foods and ingestible sources have been reported to promote inflammation within the body:

Sugars

— corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, golden syrup, maltose, sorghum syrup and sucrose. These are in many kids beverages and your favorite sodas. Cakes, candies and pastries are ladened with sugars that can set off this toxic state.

Refined grains

— flours, breads, cereals and pasta.

Vegetable oil

— You probably use many of these vegetable oils to cook your foods with: polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as grape seed, cottonseed, safflower, corn and sunflower oils.

— Almost 60 percent of the world’s population cannot digest milk. Many people have an allergic reaction to milk that causes an inflammatory response.

AFO, Animal Feeding Operation Meats

— These are meats that are raised in a factory farming operation. In a typical feedlot, a cow’s diet is roughly 95 percent grain. High-grain diets lower the pH in the animal’s rumen. Due to these conditions, operators give the animals antibiotics to prevent them from getting diseases.

Artificial Additives

— artificial additives like aspartame and MSG have been reported to trigger inflammatory responses, specifically with those who are already prone to inflammation.

So after practically eliminating 70 percent of your diet, what do you eat? I challenge you to take a couple of these foods and make the switch to a better alternative or eliminate items like artificial sweeteners and excess sugars and trans-fat. More importantly, educate yourself and eat naturally occurring foods!

Check out my new websites, www.ramonafitness.com and www.ramonastrainer.com for articles, workouts, videos and how you can get started on your path to you, only better.